


Everything is Blue

by cliffordinthehood



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, bc im literal muke trash lol rip, swimmer!michael, uni student!luke
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-06
Updated: 2015-10-03
Packaged: 2018-04-19 11:13:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4744229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cliffordinthehood/pseuds/cliffordinthehood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Luke sees a cute boy named Michael at the pool. He ends up accidentally making out with said cute boy in the change rooms afterwards. </p><p>Or, Michael is a competitive swimmer, and Luke is trying not to drown in his seafoam green eyes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> disclaimer: i know fuck all about both recreational and professional swimming so im making up events and shit as i go bc the only stroke i know involves a hand job ahem

At first it's his voice. It just sounds nice, you know? The way he speaks. It's smooth and pleasing to Luke's ears. Luke kind of just wants to grab the boy and sit across from him and just hear him talk for hours - about anything, even the boy reciting the dictionary would be music to Luke's ears. But then the boy turns around and Luke catches a glimpse of his face, before quickly averting his eyes, and wow he's really attractive too. He has dark, full lips and an eyebrow piercing and porcelain skin to contrast his flame red hair. His chest is equally as pale as his face and arms, and he has a soft, gently toned stomach, with just the faintest beginning of abs. And sure, he doesn't look like a bodybuilder, that's obvious, but somehow Luke is attracted to him much more than he ever would be to someone with a 6-pack.

The boy slips himself into the large pool of water, dunking his head down so when he resurfaces his flame-red hair is stuck to his head. He shakes it out, flinging water droplets everywhere. Luke is at the other side of the pool, just watching, trying to be as subtle as possible, pretending to be busy fumbling with his locker key. There is a man at the edge of the pool, looking down at the guy. He's older, just showing the first signs of balding, holding a stopwatch in one hand and a clipboard in the other. The guy looks up at this older man, laughs, and begins talking. Luke can't decipher the words he's saying, only hear the low sound waves that indicate the presence of speech by the time they reach him.

Luke shakes his head, letting his locker key flick back to the plastic bracelet on his wrist. He's getting distracted. He decides to get down to work, makes sure to pick a lane as far away as possible from the guy, to minimize distractions, and proceeds to do 10 laps. When he pops his head out of the water after his tenth lap, the cute boy is now gone. Luke decides it's probably better that way, as there's definitely no chance of him embarrassing himself now. So he decides to relax for a little while in the hot tub, closing his eyes and letting the hot water soothe his muscles.

After 15 minutes, he pulls himself out and heads to the lockers to clean himself off and grab his stuff. That's about the time he realizes all of the change rooms are in use. He'll either have to wait, or do a quick change in the middle of the hallway where everyone can see. Because he isn't the type to just get naked anywhere, plus there aren't any showers out here and he prefers to not reek of chlorine for the rest of the day, he decides to wait for a change room to open.

He sits down on a nearby bench, not having to wait more than a minute or so before a door opens. But, of course, with his luck, it's the cute guy from earlier. Shit. Luke quickly turns away, focusing instead on the tiled floor. It turns out the cute guy left his towel or something in his locker. When he's walking back, Luke feels the guy looking at him, but pretends he doesn't notice.

"Um, hey," the voice says after a few seconds, and Luke looks up to see the guy now standing just outside his change room. "D'you wanna come in and get cleaned off?" he asks, cocking his right eyebrow, the black piercing that adorns it glaringly obvious against his pale skin.

Under normal circumstances, Luke wouldn't. But he can smell the chlorine on himself, and it's cold in this hallway and he's kind of shivering a little bit and he's still soaked and gross and slippery and who knows how long everyone in the other change rooms will be. However, he isn't sure if he should get this close to the cute boy he'd been eyeing at the pool, because first of all, he can't be sure that the cute boy actually likes boys himself and secondly, they're in a public place and Luke has to keep up his straight image up (read: it would be super duper embarrassing if he somehow ended up with a boner bc how do you explain that). In the end, Luke decides it can't be that bad. "Uh, yeah, that would be great, if you don't mind?" he asks hesitantly.

"Nah, no worries mate," the guy shrugs, pulling the door open. Luke gets up with his towel and change of clothes and walks in after him, closing the door behind himself.

"I'm Michael by the way," the red-haired guy says, turning back to look at Luke.

"Hi," Luke replies, "I'm Luke." He sets his stuff on the countertop while Michael goes over to turn on the shower.

"Do you like it hot?"

Luke turns his head so fast he nearly gives himself whiplash.

"You know, the water?" Michael asks, chuckling slightly when Luke doesn't respond.

"Hm, oh yeah, sure," he nods noncommittally.

The both of them stay fairly silent after that. Luke has just finished washing his hair, and Michael is putting some sort of coloured shampoo on his that smells like a mixture of vanilla and mint.

"Your shampoo smells nice," Luke comments, and then cringes inwardly because he's pretty sure this is the least heterosexual he's ever been in his entire life - sharing a shower with a guy who he finds attractive, talking to him about hair products like he works at The Body Shop or something. And he's trying to play it _cool_ , damnit - although he, of all people, should know that he is actually the furthest thing possible from cool.

But Michael doesn't seem to mind because he replies, "Oh, thanks," with a smile. "Cost me an arm and a leg. It's special, for like, you know, dyed hair and stuff," he adds.

"Oh, that's not natural?" Luke asks sarcastically, a sudden wave of confidence coming over him and also because he's completely fucked already and things can't get any worse.

Michael rolls his eyes playfully, pushing Luke, but very gently because he knows the tile is slippery. Luke laughs in reply, not a cool laugh, but a little giggle where his nose scrunches up and his eyes squeeze shut, because by now he has completely given up on cool, he's just trying to survive the situation without dying of embarrassment.

"You can come closer, you know?" Michael says, noticing Luke is barely under the stream of water. "I don't want you to get cold or anything."

Luke nods, feeling the tips of his ears heat up, and takes a step or two forward.

"This shower ain't big enough for the two of us," Michael jokes, and when Luke looks up Michael's smiling and so Luke is smiling back and now they're both giggling a little bit and somehow, before Luke even knows what is going on, he feels Michael's lips on his and fuck he dies a little inside. Michael starts off slow, hesitant even, but soon Luke is licking across Michael's lips and tugging gently on the strands of his red hair, still soapy and bubbly. And it's kind of ridiculous because they're both soaked and the shower is still running but neither one seems to care because Michael's cupping Luke's head with his hands and when Michael pulls away, all swollen lips and messed-up hair, Luke's legs feel like jelly and he can't think straight. And then Michael moves down to suck and nibble at Luke's neck and collarbones and Luke closes his eyes and leans away to give Michael more space and he pulls Michael closer and pulls on his hair again and Michael moans and Luke's eyes shoot open and he pulls Michael up because he needs to have his lips on his _now_. Luke surprises both Michael and himself by slipping his tongue into Michael's mouth first, however Michael quickly wins the battle of dominance. When Luke can barely breathe anymore, he pulls away, and leans down slightly to press kisses and bites to Michael's neck, and he feels Michael's quiet moan reverberate on his lips when he places them on the column of Michael's throat and it's so _much_.

Before Luke knows it, Michael has him pressed against the wall and the hot water is still cascading down the both of them and all Luke can feel is the cold tile on his back and Michael's warm, wet chest on his front. Then Michael is palming Luke over his swim shorts and Luke is the one to let out a groan now, letting his head fall back because he doesn't have the energy to keep it up any longer.

Michael doesn't say anything, just looks at Luke with a small smirk, and Luke just groans again and lets out a choked, "Kiss me, please," and in half a second Michael is putting his lips back on Luke's and kissing into his mouth and Luke has honestly never felt this good in his entire life.

"Fuck, can I-" Luke breathes, after a minute or so, panting desperately and hovering his hand over Michael's swim shorts. Michael nods, chooses this moment to bury his head in Luke's neck, bites down on Luke's shoulder when Luke applies pressure to his crotch. And Michael pushes back on Luke's hand, craving it. "Fuckk," he mumbles, all whiny and drawn out.

Suddenly there's a knock on the door. "Michael, we gotta go, are you ready?" a voice calls out from behind the door.

Michael's head shoots up, letting go of the skin on Luke's shoulder that he was biting into. "Yeah, one second!" he yells back at the unknown voice.

He sighs, meeting his lips with Luke's again, tugging briefly on the short blonde hair at the nape of his neck. "I really wish I had more time,” he says, as he pulls away. He then scrambles around the small room, quickly drying off and pulling on a pair of shorts and a shirt, slinging his towel around his shoulders to catch any moisture from his still-wet hair. "Sorry," he apologizes, meeting his lips with Luke's one last time, before he's out the door.

Luke feels the cool breeze from outside for a brief second before the door closes behind Michael, and Luke is left a little bewildered. What the fuck just happened? He was literally a minute and a half away from having sex with the most attractive guy he'd ever seen who he'd just met not even a half hour ago and now he was left with an empty change room and a hard on. He didn't even get the guy's phone number. Damnit.

He sighs, running a hand through his blonde locks, still breathing heavily. Then he gets back under the stream of water, pulls off his swim shorts, and proceeds to jack off because that's what any normal person would do in this situation. And maybe, just maybe, when he leans his feverishly hot body up against the cool tile wall, and closes his eyes, flashes of all-too-familiar red hair dance across his vision.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i would've had this up last weekend but i had a ton of homework and then i got sick and then my internet stopped working for three whole days and i could only use my phone what a barbaric time phew good thing that's all over and hopefully i'll be able to update this on a regular schedule (im thinking every weekend) but we'll see! anyways, enjoy!!

Luke grabs his duffle bag out of the backseat of his car, slings it over his shoulder, and locks the vehicle. He's 10 minutes early to his first day at his new job - instructing the fall sessions of swimming lessons for kids 8 and under. He likes kids, although he's a bit scared of them, because he's never sure exactly what they're going to do. He would hate for any of them to get in danger, or hurt themselves. He makes a mental note to go over the safety rules at least twice before they even get in the pool. Luckily there will be another instructor in his group, so between the two of them, everything should go smoothly.

He makes his way to the change rooms, and puts on his bodysuit - one of those tight suits that have short sleeves and end above the knee and act like a second skin. He throws his duffle containing a towel and a change of clothes into a locker and puts the keychain around his wrist, then he makes his way to the front of the facility, to meet his group.

Six of the eight students are already there, waiting with their parents. Luke is a bit nervous, but he manages to shake all of the parent's hands, and introduce himself, even giving a few of the kids enthusiastic high fives. The parents soon leave and he and the kids wait for everyone else to arrive.

Five minutes later the final child arrives, waving bye to their mom and dragging a towel that was probably supposed to be clean but is now anything but across the floor. Luke can't help but chuckle lightly. He checks the waterproof watch around his wrist - it's now 2 minutes after the lesson is scheduled to start. All of the children are now here, but there's no sign of the other instructor. Luke sighs - trust him to get partnered with someone who's chronically late. This is just like back in high school when he had to do group projects, although he'd rather not think about that ever again because it was quite frankly terrible.

"Okay, guys," he says to eight pairs of eyes staring in wonderment up at him, "Let's get to the change rooms!"

All of the kids manage to get changed without too much fuss. A few of them even wore their swimsuits underneath their clothes, which made things easier. One kid needed help doing up the zipper on their back, which Luke managed. He then stowed everyone's things between two lockers, adding the respective keychains to his wrist. He checked his watch again - he'd made pretty good time, it was just 10 past, and there was still 50 minutes left. Though the second instructor still hadn't showed up, which was quite frankly bugging the hell out of Luke. How had they hired him in the first place? Surely the references he'd provided would have indicated that the guy was habitually late. Plus, the lesson plans Luke had went over earlier were made for two instructors, as the group would be broken into two smaller groups of four children each. Oh well, Luke would just have to manage.

And, a further five minutes in, Luke thought he was managing quite well, thank you very much. He'd wrangled all of the children into the small, shallow pool, and they were now showing him how well they could blow bubbles. Luke was just about to get out the kickboards when a figure emerged from the hallway leading to the change rooms. A figure that was much too familiar for Luke's comfort. Goosebumps crawled up his skin, and he was thankful most of it was covered by the bodysuit - although, the figure had seen him in much less. Shit. This was _not_ happening right now. The _one_ person Luke had been remotely intimate with in the past 6 months just fucking _happened_ to be the other instructor. He had changed his hair since that first fateful meeting nearly two weeks ago - it was now a jet black - but Luke would recognize him anywhere. Shit. _Shitshitshit._

Luke stood there, frozen, until he became aware of a pulling on his arm. One of the little girls, Marie, was looking up at him. "Um, Lewk?" she asks, putting her hands on her hips, "Didn't you say we were supposed to be learning on the boards now?"

"Hm? Oh yeah, let me just-"

"Hey guys!" a cheery voice says.

Luke looks back up to see Michael, now standing about 3 feet away from them. One of the girls in the group breaks away to run (as fast as she can in water nearly up to her waist) towards him.

"Michael!" she squeals, latching onto his leg because that's all she can reach.

"Hey Carly, how have you been?" Michael asks, looking down at her, petting her hair.

"Good! Everyone," she announces, turning back to the group. "This is Michael, he was my teacher last year for swimming. And his hair used to be pink, it was _so_ cool!" At this, Michael smiles, blushing a little bit.

Luke was also blushing by now, although he feels like he's slowly dying inside. There's no way he's going to survive this. "Great, well I'll just go get the kickboards," he says, jumping out of the pool and making his way over to the lifeguard's office, where all of the toys are kept.

He comes back to the pool with a pile of kickboards and sits down, hanging his feet over the edge, while he distributes one to each child. The last hand to grab one is decidedly larger than the rest, and there are a couple tattoos on the fingers. Luke looks up to meet Michael's gaze.

"Hi," Michael says, with a smile. All it takes is that, and Luke _knows_ he remembers. Luke likes to think that he can't be easy to forget, but now he actually wishes he was.

"Hey," Luke replies lamely, just barely looking him in the eyes, willing the burning red on his cheeks to go away. Michael doesn't comment on it, although Luke is sure he sees. Michael doesn't comment on anything, actually. It's as if they'd never met - except for the obvious fact that they had, and both of them knew it - Luke is painfully aware of that.

Much of the actual swimming lesson goes like that. Both Luke and Michael stick to the lesson plan they had been given, doing some easy stuff like kicking and blowing bubbles, and even getting some of the kids doing small laps back and forth on the kickboards. Luke is surprised that Michael is as in to teaching the kids as he is. Luke expected that, with Michael's tardiness, he would try to get away with doing the least amount of work, but that wasn't the case at all.

It was actually kind of fun, by the end. Luke and Michael let the kids have some free time playing around, and then rounded them back up when there was five minutes left, and headed back to the change rooms. They stand at the entrance, waiting with the kids while their parents pick them up. After all of the kids have left, it's just Luke and Michael. But Luke isn't planning on standing around awkwardly. He picks up his duffle bag, and is about to leave, when he's stopped by a voice.

"Wait, Luke?" Michael calls.

Luke turns back around to face Michael.

"Look, I just wanna sort some things out," Michael begins, in a quieter voice, "since we're gonna be doing this for a while. I didn't talk to you much today cause I thought you seemed uncomfortable, so that's why. But I don't want it to be uncomfortable between us, and I'm sorry if I, like, scared you off or whatever. We don't have to do anything, or be anything, ok? If that was just like a one-off thing, that's fine. I don't know if you're out yet, or even if you know what you are, or if you were just fooling around or whatever, and I get it, I just-"

"Michael, can I ask you something?" Luke interrupts suddenly, shouldering his duffel bag.

Michael nods, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Um," Luke begins, scratching at the back of his neck because he isn't sure how to say it without just, well, saying it, so that's what he does. "So are you, like, gay or?"

"Bi," Michael answers back almost immediately, but almost casually.

"Cool," Luke nods. "Uh, me too, actually," he admits, surprising himself with how open he's being.

"Yeah?" Michael asks, eyebrow quirking up curiously. "Um, for me it's mostly boys, but every once and a while a girl sneaks in there."

Luke nods. "For me it's pretty half and half, I think. I mean, I'm still kinda figuring things out and at the moment it's just you but-" _shit_ , he thinks, he probably shouldn't have said that last bit. And now Michael is looking at him with that smile, and Luke wants to disappear into the floorboards.

Michael lets out a loud laugh, all sparkling eyes and bobbing adam's apple. "Luke, chill. I like you too, ok? And in case you're wondering, I've been here for over three years, and you're the only person I've ever invited in to my change room, so that wasn't like a regular thing."

"Oh," and now Luke isn't sure what to think. "So..." he trails off.

"You looked uncomfortable and cold, and you were cute, too. So I thought I might as well help you out," he shrugs, and then it turns into a smile as he adds, "The fact that you nearly had your hand down my pants was just a bonus."

"Shhhh!" Luke exclaims, immediately turning bright red, to which Michael just laughs at.

"Aw, you're cute when you blush," Michael says, and Luke is about to reply 'you're cute all the time' but then he nearly slaps himself because he's trying to be calm and collected and _cool_ , here. He is a _professional_ swim instructor, and he is currently in his place of work, and he's pretty sure this counts as workplace fraternization which he's pretty sure isn't allowed so Michael should just stop now before-

"Ah, boys!" a voice from behind them exclaims.

It's Linda, the woman Luke spoke to on the phone when applying for the job. She's one of the coordinators here, or something. She scurries towards them, short heels clacking across the floor. _Shit, that's it, we're both getting fired. We're definitely getting fired. I'm so fucked._

"I just wanted to say that I had a brief word with one of the parents who came to pick up their child - the parent seems so happy about the lessons, and the child was just beaming when she came out. Keep up the good work," she smiles at both of them. "See you next week!" she adds over her shoulder, as she's walking away.

They both wave to her. Then Luke shoulders his duffle bag again, and looks to Michael. "Okay, well..."

"See you next week?" Michael asks, with a smile.

Luke nods, a small smile forming as he replies, "Yeah. See you then."


	3. Chapter 3

The next week's swimming lesson goes by fairly uneventfully. Luke tries his best to keep calm and collected around Michael who just seems to be getting more attractive each time Luke sees him, as impossible as that is. But Luke does a very good job overall, thank you very much. He only blushes once, which is definitely a record. And Luke is getting more comfortable with the kids, too. In fact, he's currently holding two of their hands as the group exits the pool area to meet their parents.

They all wait together for a few minutes, while some of the kids get picked up, but then Michael touches Luke's arm and says, "Hey, are you okay if I leave you with them for a second? I just have to go talk to Norm."

"Yeah, sure. No worries." There are only three kids left, and Luke has no problem supervising them until their parents arrive.

When the remaining kids aren't taking up his attention, he glances over at Michael, who is on the other side of the room, near the offices, talking to an older balding man who holds some management position at the leisure centre.

Luke waves bye to the last kid as they leave, and then sees that Michael is still talking, so he decides to go over and see what's up.

"- sure there must be someone who's available," Norm is saying.

"I don't know," Michael replies. "I talked with the receptionist and she said she'd call a few people, and get back to me if she heard anything, but she hasn't, so I'm not really sure what I'll do. I know it's only 2 weeks, but, y'know, right before competition season, the timing's really shitty. Usually I'm in the water every other day, which I'll still be doing, but you know, you can't really get an accurate record of anything without it," Michael says.

"Hey, what's up?" Luke asks.

"Oh, hey Luke." Michael gives a small smile. "Norm, this is Luke, the guy that I teach kids lessons with."

"Nice meeting you," Luke says, as he and Norm shake hands.

"Norm is one of the more college-level swimming staff. My coach is going to be out of the area for the next two weeks, he has some business stuff, and usually he's the one who times me during practice, and we're having a hard time finding anyone to take his place."

"Oh," Luke says sympathetically. And then, because he's always thinking about others, and he's really way too nice for his own good, he finds the words, "Well um, I mean, I'm probably available, I wouldn't mind doing it," tumbling out of his mouth.

"Oh, really?" Michael asks. And Luke definitely can't go back on his word now, not with Michael staring at him in wonderment.

"Uh, yeah. Course. I just need to time you?"

"Yeah. Well Norm is able to cover Saturday, so it'll just be Tuesday and Thursday nights, from 7 to 8. Does that work, you don't have anything then?"

"Nope," Luke shrugs. He's kind of embarrassed to say that normally he's just studying or watching tv then, so he doesn't bother to elaborate.

"Awesome!" Michael exclaims.

Norm gives the two a small smile, and says, "Well looks like you boys have it figured out. Michael, I'll see you next Saturday."

"Luke, that's so awesome," Michael says, once Norm leaves. "Thank you so much."

"It's seriously not a big deal," Luke says. "I'm not busy anyways- wait, Thursday? Today?"

Michael nods sheepishly. "Yeah. I know it's really short notice, if you can't make it today, I totally understand."

"No, I'll be here. Yeah. I'll see you at 7."

"Sounds good. Oh, hey, we should probably, like, trade phone numbers or something, you know, in case one of us is gonna be late for the lessons, or something comes up and you can't make it to time my practice."

Luke nods. Normally, he would've thrown in some comment about how he could've used that the first lesson when Michael was over 15 minutes late, but at this very moment he's having a hard time focusing on anything other than his heart hammering away, because Michael kind of just asked him for his number?!

Wordlessly, he pulls out his phone, and swaps it with Michael's. They both add each other as contacts, Luke just goes with the standard _Luke Hemmings_ because he's obviously super-ultra professional. He kind of dreads wondering what Michael is going to put his name as, but when he gets his phone back, it's just _Michael C._ Good. He definitely does not need something like _Hot Stuff_ coming up on his call display at dinner time when he's back at his mom's for the weekend. Not that Michael would just randomly be calling him to talk, but you know, hypothetically speaking.

So Luke and Michael say their quick goodbyes. When Luke arrives back at the pool, he puts on his swim trunks, and meets Michael at the deep end, where he's already been practicing for what looks like a little while.

Luke just watches Michael swimming for a little bit, as he's never really had the chance to actually see him. And Michael's good - Luke can tell, even from his limited swimming knowledge. When Michael stops at the end, pulling his swim cap and goggles off, Luke makes his presence known.

"Hey," he says. Michael looks up at him, face breaking into a smile. "Hey." Then he gets back into swimmer mode. "So the timer's just over there in that cupboard. And there should be some clipboards, too, but you just want the one with my name on it."

Luke locates them quite quickly, and comes back to Michael's lane. He notes that there are only two other people in the pool, and they both look like recreational swimmers.

"Okay," Michael says, "So you basically just stand here, and yell go and start the timer. Each time I come back to this spot, press the button to lap the timer, and record the time in the space. That's 100m total. And I'll do 10 of those in a row, take a small break, and then do another 10.

Luke does well the first go round. He clicks the timer when Michael comes back to his side, and faithfully records each time in the little boxes on the sheet. Once Michael is done the first set, he pulls himself up onto the side and Luke shows him the clipboard. It must be a good time because Michael is smiling and he gives Luke a high five even though his hand is wet but Luke doesn't really mind because Michael is happy.

Then Michael slides back into the water, and does a 'relaxing' swim for the next 5 minutes. Luke says relaxing because quite honestly he'd be completely exhausted after that, and his definition of relax would include sleeping in his bed for the next 10 hours, not going back into the water to do more light swimming. But he'll work with it. He sits on the side, with his feet dangling in the water on the empty lane one over from Michael's, watching him swim. When Michael's just doing this kind of swimming, he leaves his swim cap off, so Luke can see his black hair as he bobs in and out of the water. It must've been so cool when it was pink, Luke thinks. The black is cool too, though. Just Michael in general is cool, really.

"5 minutes!" Luke yells out, once the five minutes is up on his timer.

"Kay!" Michael calls, and swims back. He puts his swim cap and goggles on and waits for Luke to call 'go!', at which point he dives into the water and takes off.

The first few laps are recorded right, but then Luke pushes some button on the side accidentally, which brings up this other function, and when Luke finally gets out of that other screen, he sees that it's completely changed the time. All he can think is 'shit', when Michael comes back and touches the wall, before going off again. Luke looks around, to see if there's anyone there who can possibly fix the timer, but the pool is now completely empty.

"Michael!" Luke yells, because there's no use Michael wasting his energy when nothing is being recorded. Luke has to call again before Michael hears him. He stops, and swims back the distance to the edge of the pool.

"Uh..." Luke begins, knowing that he owns Michael some sort of explanation, but he isn't sure exactly how to explain that he was stupid and messed it up.

"I don't know what happened, Mike. I'm sorry, the timer, just, I don't know," he says, feeling so ridiculously incapable. His face is starting to colour in embarrassment. Michael makes his way out of the pool, taking off his cap and goggles as he walks over to Luke. The ridiculous black Speedo Michael's wearing is certainly not helping the blush on Luke's cheeks, because it's really tight, and, um, there's not much to it.

"What happened?" Michael asks, craning his neck to see the sheet, where there's a bunch of blank space left.

"I don't know," Luke sighs. He's already embarrassed, which makes explaining the issue difficult, but he's also getting flustered, because now Michael is literally 2 inches away from him, dripping wet, and panting a little, and Luke can feel Michael's breath on his shoulder and it's really distracting and he's trying to figure out what he did wrong with this stupid complicated timer so he doesn't look like a complete idiot however clearly that's already happened so-

"Luke?"

Luke turns instinctively towards the mention of his name. He's met with Michael's green eyes, his dark lips stretching into an easy smile.

"Relax," Michael chuckles, putting a hand on Luke's shoulder, causing Luke to freeze even more.

"It's not a big deal, ok?" Michael says, and his voice is soft and comforting. "You're doing great."

"No 'm not," Luke mumbles, looking down as he blushes. He blushes way too much for his own good. "You did a lap and I fucked up the timer and now you have to do it all over again," he sighs gently. "'m sorry."

"Hey," Michael says, nudging Luke gently. "I got a great time in the first 1000m. How about we finish early today. We can just have fun and splash around instead, ok? How does that sound?"

Luke nods. He still feels bad because he fucked up something that seemed so simple, but Michael wants to end it here, so he's not gonna argue.

So that's what they do. They swim around and play stupid little games like tag and talk about the next lesson that they have with the kids. It's just _fun_ , and Luke is finally starting to get comfortable around Michael. By now, Luke is pretty sure it's way past 8pm, and the pool is about to close, or has been closed for a while, because they're still the only ones in there, and it's pitch black outside, and he's about to voice this to Michael, but Michael touches Luke's arm gently, and Luke forgets what he was going to say.

"Hey, can I um, try something?" Michael asks. And Luke is surprised because Michael is hesitant now, for once the roles are reversed.

"Um, sure? What?" Luke asks.

"Do you trust me?" Michael asks, all-too-seriously a minute after they've just finished their 6th round of water tag.

"Yeah," Luke nods, without hesitation. He does, actually, he's surprised at how much so.

"Ok," Michael nods. "Go underwater, and close your eyes."

And Luke is a little unsure, but he does what Michael says anyways. After about five seconds underwater, Luke thinks maybe this is one of Michael's stupid games, that he was only pretending to be serious, and really he's tricked Luke and ran off to the showers to get the hell out of here.

And then he feels it. Something nudging against his lips. Michael's lips. Touching his. They're kissing. Luke finds himself leaning in, fighting against the gentle pressure of the water to keep his lips locked to Michael's. Because it feels nice. It feels really nice.

After half a minute or so, Luke has to come up for air, so he does, breaking apart and reaching the surface, pushing his wet hair out of his eyes. Michael pops up a second later, shaking his hair out like a wet dog, and Luke just looks at him, watching him.

"Soo... what did you think?" Michael asks, with a genuinely unsure expression on his face. He pulls his bottom lip between his teeth, chewing on it.

And because Luke is an actual dork, he replies, "Cool." And then he's blushing, and Michael is blushing too, and then they're both smiling, and Luke is focused on Michael's white teeth and his pink lips and the feeling that they brought when they were pressed against his own. And he wants to do it again. And then again after that.

Michael sees Luke staring at him, and looks down for a second, smiling, before looking back up. "We should, um, probably get out now. Before the staff come in and drag us out."

Luke nods. And so he and Michael exit the pool, and Luke walks close to Michael just because he likes being close and he can do it now, he thinks, because they kissed properly. But to his surprise, once he grabs his stuff from his locker and makes his way to the change room, Michael chooses the one beside his, rather than walking in with him.

As Luke is having a quick shower, and getting changed, he wonders what Michael is thinking. Maybe the kiss wasn't actually that good - though Michael seemed to enjoy it, as much as you can enjoy an underwater kiss, there isn't exactly any tongue action or anything going on there because you'd both end up drowning, but it was a nice kiss, nonetheless.

When Luke exits the change room, wet hair messy on his head, Michael is waiting for him.

"Hey," he greets.

"Hey," Luke nods back. He taps his fingers on his thigh, readjusting his duffel. He doesn't know what to say, really. His mind is going into overdrive, thinking of stuff to say. Maybe he could make Michael smile, because seeing his face light up makes Luke so happy. Maybe he could make Michael blush, because the red tinge on his cheeks is the most adorable thing in the world. But, then he remembers that he really doesn't know Michael at all. And he doesn't have that much experience with guys to begin with, not to mention that he hasn't been in a relationship in over a year. He kinda forgot what it was like to _like_ someone - the butterflies, the sickly sweet feeling you get whenever you're around them or think of them. Like you just wanna grab their hand and snuggle into them and maybe kiss them and stuff. Or just be near them, hear their voice. He doesn't remember that feeling being this strong, and maybe that's just because he forgot what it felt like, but maybe it's because he's never felt quite so strongly about anyone before, and that thought scares him a little bit. He kind of feels like he's on the edge of a cliff, ready to take the dive a hundred feet down into the water. He knows if he takes that step, there's no turning back. He knows if he jumps off, he's going to be falling fast, and he probably won't be able to stop himself until his entire head is under the water, and he's gasping for breath. Because gravity works a lot like love. You can't control it. And either way you're fucked, because there's nothing that can possibly stop you from being pulled down to earth the same way nothing can stop that feeling deep down inside you. But it can be good. Gravity keeps you from drifting out to space and love feels so nice and warm and safe and comforting and Luke things he could definitely get used to having Michael permanently in his life.

"Hey, Luke," Michael says suddenly, pulling Luke from his thoughts. "Do you wanna go on a date with me?" The words tumble out, quickly, all in one breath.

"Um," Luke swallows, surprised. His mouth falls open for a few seconds, before he closes it. "Yeah," he says, in a voice that he hopes sounds confident. "That would be-"

But Michael is still blabbering on. "Like this weekend, or something? I don't know if you're busy, but I hope you have time. Maybe we could just go get a coffee, or something simple like that?"

"That sounds great, Michael. I'd love to go for coffee with you," Luke replies.

"Oh, awesome! Yeah, that's... awesome," Michael says, trying to keep cool, but not being able to stop a grin from breaking out on his face.

Luke just smiles. He likes seeing Michael happy. It makes him happy. And then, because he's sure he's going to turn into an actual pile of mush on the floor if he doesn't wrap this up, Luke says, "You know, I should probably get going. Early class at uni tomorrow, and everything."

"Right! Of course, yeah, okay," Michael nods.

Luke nods as well, then adds, "And let me know where, for the date, since you've been around here for longer and everything."

"Okay. I'll text you."

"Awesome."

And then Michael is still standing there, and to his own surprise, Luke finds himself leaning in and closing his eyes. And sure enough, Michael meets him halfway, pressing his thumb to Luke's chin. Their lips part with a satisfied smack, and Luke finds himself greedily nudging in for just a little bit more. Luke feels Michael's giggle against his lips, a puff of minty warm breath passing over Luke's lips. And then they're pulling away again, for real this time.

"M'kay," Michael smiles, eyes crinkling at the corners. "See you Sunday," he says, taking a step back.

"See you Sunday," Luke waves, then he turns around, and makes his way outside, scans the parking lot to find his car, and then hops in. He feels like one of those extra-stuffed marshmallows the whole ride home. Bursting with happiness.

Just as his head hits the pillow for the night, he sees his phone on his bedside table.

_Goodnight_ he sends Michael, with a kissy face because he's super ultra sappy and if Michael didn't know that already well then now was as good a time as any to find out.

Not a minute later, Michael sends back a _Night cutie_ with a winky face. Luke chuckles gently, putting his phone back in its spot, and drifting off to sleep.


End file.
